Season 1994/5. Alex McLeish was in charge of Motherwell, Whigfield was top of the charts and everyone was looking forward to a Labour government. If it wasn’t for Phil O’Donnell dominating midfields whilst wearing Claret and Amber, you wouldn’t recognise these times at all - even if he had just jumped ship to Celtic! But even after Phil, Motherwell were good. In fact, we were very good. Tommy McLean had taken us to third in the league the year before and under our new manager, the football was flowing but by October the wins weren’t. McLeish, in his wisdom, did comment that we were on the verge of giving someone a hiding – not a bad prediction!
Motherwell 5-3 Falkirk: A sensational game to kick off our modern record run. We were two up and cruising (TC had even missed a penalty) before John Clark gets one back with a free kick. Clark then gets another free kick (deflected?) at the start of the second half and shortly afterwards, 73 year old Frank McAvennie is left free to head them into a lead. The Falkirk fans are cavorting around wildly whilst the Motherwell players compose themselves and proceed to step up a gear. Two goals from Dougie Arnott restores calm around Fir Park and TC wraps it up with a fifth (after another missed penalty!).
Aberdeen 1-3 Motherwell: A win at Pittodrie was confirmation of our ‘good’ status. We simply didn’t win at Aberdeen and it had been nearly twenty years since a Bobby Graham goal had last given us victory in the Granite City. A Scott Booth penalty put us one down at half time but again the team showed resilience and stormed back. A fine strike by McKinnon and a clever finish from Kirk gave us the lead before a lovely turn and chip from Coyne sealed it. The ‘Well fans left the ground singing we’re going to do the double and some may even have believed it next week!
Motherwell 2-1 Rangers: The score flattered the visitors who, for some reason, had chosen to play in a vomit inducing lilac strip. Arnott delivered against the Old Firm again, this time aided by a gorgeous volleyed assist from Coyne and a great Lambert free kick. Softy gave them an o.g. so not to hurt their feelings too much but we were on a different planet to them on this occasion. Oh happy day!
Motherwell 3-2 Kilmarnock: I’m afraid my memory lets me down here so if anyone can fill in the gaps, feel free! I’m sure we were 2-1 down at some point and I think Coyne got one and we benefited from at least one oggie. Whatever the details, this was a very edgy win but at the time we had an Indian sign over Killie, they simply couldn’t beat us. A shame that has changed as well!
Hearts 1-2 Motherwell: A win at Pittodrie, a win at Tynie. This being good is quite fun. A TC tap in gave us the lead but Hearts levelled (through a John Robertson punch? Not whinging about the ref that day, eh) in the second half. Once again we fought back and got a sensational winner. The ball looked to be heading out of play when Dougie Arnott managed a miraculous over heard kick. The ball was met on the eighteen yard line by Rab Shannon who slammed it into the bottom corner. No bad!
We were only stopped denied a sixth consecutive win by Craig Brewster scoring 29 minutes into injury time to equalise for Dundee United. The five wins did come inside another remarkable record though. We were defeated on the opening day of the season at Ibrox but after that we had draws against Hearts, Dundee United, Hibs and Partick before going on the five game winning run. We then drew with United and Hibs, beat Thistle and drew with Celtic before finally losing at home to Aberdeen. Fifteen league games unbeaten – an impressive record!
Our wins over Dundee, Hearts, Dunfermline, Dundee United and Livingston have put us in a great league position. Will we be able to make a new record for a winning streak when ICT visit Fir Park on Saturday? Fingers crossed!